dunno001 already said what I came here to say.... this generation is getting old now, a major factor in the excitement of this website early on was the start of the generation, people not knowing how it was going to pan out... predictions about the outcome that now seem fantastical, but back then were certainly within the realms of possibility. (in 2007 the PS3 catching the Wii and "winning" the generation was at least plausible to the rational non-Sony fans, while in 2008 the Wii was expected to continue it's vast momentum through 2009 and onwards (I predicted someting like 75 million sales by the end of 2009, a figure it only passed a couple of months ago)
The 3DS will bring a little excitement back, but there has to be a proper battle to make it like it was, so the PSP2 will help some more. It will take at least 2 home console releases to get properly exciting though (as generally the handhelds hold less interest in discussions even if the hardware sales are higher than the home consoles)
Other factors do come into play of course, the site re-design put a few more people off than it brought new people in imo... and while many of the oddly left out features have trickled back in there are still a few missing that I have no idea why they were taken out. (some promised future features though sound excellent.... I am hoping it isn't going to be too long till the graphs are back to their former glory (and more as some new features are in already, even if they are pointless features without old functionality at the same time.... the pin mode is great, but when you can only see a cumulative sales chart it's not much use)
